Education chiefs are hiding the true scale of violence in Scottish schools because of a 'culture of fear'

The claim was made by teaching unions during a special Holyrood hearing

Teachers are being “dissuaded” from reporting violent incidents because of a “culture of fear” about the impact it will have on a school’s reputation, MSPs have heard.

Trade union representatives claimed head teachers and local authorities feel under “pressure” not to report the true scale of the problem.

They called for a culture change and greater “transparency” while giving evidence during a special meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s education committee on violence in schools. The hearing was held amid growing concerns about the issue in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents.

Little boy sitting alone on floor after suffering an act of bullying while children run in the background. Sad young schoolboy sitting on corridor with hands on knees and head between his legs.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has announced plans to hold a special summit to discuss the crisis.

But concerns have been raised after she signalled new policies may depend on fresh research into pupil behaviour, which is not due to be ready until nearer the end of the year.

Mike Corbett, national official of the NASUWT union, told an education committee hearing on Wednesday there is a postcode lottery when it comes to reporting violent incidents, saying some authorities operated a “Byzantine system”.

He also suggested teachers were under-reporting incidents involving violence.

"We have got a cultural problem and I suspect that has come originally from very well-intentioned aims to reduce exclusions, for example,” he said.

"But one of the unintended consequences of that, I would suggest, is that local authorities obviously get violent incidents from schools reported to them, and exclusions etc, and our members certainly tell us there has increasingly been a culture of fear almost among head teachers who don’t want to report a large number of violent incidents because that makes their school look bad.

"They don’t want to exclude sometimes because that makes their school look bad.

"So there is definitely a cultural issue and pressure on local authorities and head teachers, and it may be because they have misunderstood the guidance. But that absolutely leads to situations where individual teachers feel they are dissuaded from actually reporting violent incidents and abuse."

Similar issues were referenced in evidence from Anne Keenan, assistant secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the largest teaching union in Scotland.

She told the committee: "There is a concern that some schools may feel that this would suggest that their schools may have a particular problem.

"We think that culture needs to change, it needs to be much more open, much more transparent, so that teachers are being actively supported by their schools and by their local authorities, to report these incidents, and thereafter that action is taken.

"Some kind of tracking thereafter so we can say ‘well where do the resources need to lie? Where do we need to invest to actually address the problem and change the culture?’

"So there is a cultural issue there that we absolutely need to address.”

Cheryl Burnett, chairwoman of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said a “damning” finding from its survey showed more than half of parents do not feel their children are safe at school now.

The committee also heard from Nick Smiley, chairman of the Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP).

He said there was a legacy from the significant impact caused by lockdown restrictions at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly for year groups who were transitioning from primary to secondary, and from nursery to primary school.

Mr Smiley said there had been a rise in behaviour concerns linked to younger pupils, including those at nursery.

"The issue in terms of the incidents that occur and that are causing a lot of concern and alarm, I would say in the vast majority of incidents it is distressed behaviour,” he said. “It can be viewed through a prism or a lens of trauma. I would say we have more children presenting with neurodevelopmental needs.

"The combination of those needs along with perhaps traumatic experiences, or needs not being met outwith school etc, results in situations sometimes that are very difficult to manage.

"And the age of children that are presenting with those needs has got younger.

"I would say it's quite clear now that even as young as early learning and childcare, we have children that can come into school that require a lot of support and even the environmental situation is very demanding for them, and trying to meet their needs poses challenges.

"I wouldn't talk about ‘violent’ behaviour in those contexts. But there are children who become distressed and cannot cope and communicate and express their needs through behaviour, which is difficult for staff to deal with."

In written evidence to the committee, Tom Bennett OBE, a UK Government education adviser and the founder of researchED, questioned why Scotland continued to emphasise “well-meant, but essentially ineffective” behaviour policies, often involving holding meetings with pupils involved.

He said: “Scottish education needs to move away from a system that congratulates itself on almost zero exclusions and move to one where it’s done when necessary – and only then.”

In 2006/7, there were 44,546 temporary and 248 permanent exclusions north of the border. However, in 2020/21 – the most recent year data was available for – those numbers had fallen to 8,323 temporary and only one permanent exclusion.

Dr Colin Morrison, co-director of the Children's Parliament, urged MSPs not to abandon Scotland’s move away from these types of punishments.

"It’s good policy – we can’t see an unpicking of that because of our anxiety and our worry about what is happening to people,” he said. "The reason we have fewer exclusions in Scotland is because we’ve all worked so hard before Covid to make that so.”

Ms Keenan said that teachers needed more time to properly implement the “restorative” policies for tackling misbehaviour.

"If we are are really going to invest in these practices, we need to give our teachers the time, the training, the space,” she said. “We need to look at the resourcing issues. We need to have smaller class sizes, so you can develop those approaches.

“We’ve suggested 20 as our target. We’re sitting at some of the highest in the OECD countries. We’ve had commitment after commitment to reduce class sizes, and we haven’t seen that happening over the last 16 years.

"We absolutely need that critical investment in education, in core education funding, smaller class sizes, reduced class contact time.

"We definitely need more investment in ASN specialists – specialist teachers, but also pupil support workers.”

Following the committee hearing, a spokesperson for local authority umbrella body Cosla said councils take the issue of safety in schools “extremely seriously”.

The spokesperson said: “The safety and well-being of everyone who uses our facilities is of paramount importance. Every incident we see in a learning establishment is one too many and is dealt with in an appropriate manner.

"Schools should be safe and welcoming places for children, young people, staff and the wider community and on the whole they are. However, that said, councils are never complacent when it comes to safety and always strive for improvement.

"All councils will have reporting mechanisms in place for recording incidents.”

The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.